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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27266920">Cracks</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiceLyre/pseuds/DiceLyre'>DiceLyre</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Lost</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Deal With the Devil, F/M, liminal spaces</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:42:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>474</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27266920</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiceLyre/pseuds/DiceLyre</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a kiss born of impossibility and amnesia. She did not know then, huddled on the tile floor, that this man had never been her lover.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kate Austen/Jack Shephard, Kate Austen/The Man In Black</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cracks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A/N: Playing around with liminality and the space between dreams and dimensions with this one shot. Set in Season 6, but is more of an 'unstuck in time and reason' kinda jam. Not a pairing that I ever thought I'd write, but for some reason this scene just showed up and wouldn't leave me alone. As visuals go, I'd recommend summoning up the Man in Black as John Locke at his most quietly dangerous and a Kate Austen who's tipped over the edge of sanity.</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <strong>CRACKS</strong>
</p>
<p>It was a kiss born of impossibility and amnesia. She did not know then, huddled on the tile floor, that this man had never been her lover. Her thoughts were clouded, purple and sticky with longing. She remembered a plane, a cave, a village, a man who took her away and brought her back. A man she loved to redemption, a man who loved her to ruin.</p>
<p>This was not that man.</p>
<p>This man's thoughts remained a mystery. Who can read the devil's mind?</p>
<p>It was a kiss that she had to catch up to, a train she had to leap aboard, a plane she had to throw herself from. By the time she was able to question, she was caged in his arms, tangled up on the ground of an abandoned place with shelves of empty stock. A flicker of memory-<em>a hatch, a shower at the end of the world, a candy bar, a guy with a blue van and sweet smile</em>-gone in the wake of his mouth on hers.</p>
<p>Slow, hot, muted desperation, his hand fisted in her crown of curls, her so lost in this non-moment that she couldn't find her eyes, couldn't shock herself from the ragnarök of his kiss. There was a warning in the tension of his body, and warning was something she could recognize. She could follow tracks, he had taught her how, wasn't that right? He had taught her much...and there was her name again, and yes, <em>yes</em>, she knew herself.</p>
<p>Kate felt the vaguest sense of bewilderment and betrayal, and then a rage that shuddered through her wiry frame. She sighed and the devil swallowed the sound, sucked her tongue into his mouth and chased her memory back down the dark hallway of her mind. Pulled back, put his lips to her pulse, whispered against her skin.</p>
<p>
  <em>What if I told you I could give you the thing you want most? What would it be?</em>
</p>
<p>A flash of blonde and blue, an ache in her empty arms, a haze of green that burned like tears. A brilliant smile, warm eyes, <em>Jack</em>, she almost said, <em>give me Jack</em>, but she knew even then that any gift from this man would arrive rotted and unfamiliar.</p>
<p>So she asked for what not even the devil could alter.</p>
<p><em>Oblivion</em>.</p>
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